The analysis of coupled biogeochemical cycles (CBCs) addresses the scientific basis for some of today's major environmental problems. Drawing from information presented at a series of sessions on CBCs held at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America and from the research community's expertise, we identify several principal research themes that justify action and investment. Critical areas for research include: coupling of major element cycles to less studied yet equally important trace element cycles; analyzing CBCs across ecosystem boundaries; integrating experimental results into regional- and global-scale models; and expanding the analysis of human interactions with CBCs arising from human population growth, urbanization, and geoengineering. To advance the current understanding of CBCs and to address the environmental challenges of the 21st century, scientists must maintain and synthesize data from existing observational and experimental networks, develop new instrumentation networks, and adopt emerging technologies.

en_US

dc.description.sponsorship

We thank the National Science Foundation (NSF) and
the Ecological Society of America (ESA) for their financial
and logistical support of the Coupled Biogeochemical
Cycles sessions held at the 2009 ESA Annual Meeting,
and the publication of this special feature issue of
Frontiers.
ACF was supported by the NSF (DEB-
0743564) and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s)
Office of Biological and Environmental Research (10-
DOE-1053). SCD
was supported by the Center for Microbial Oceanography,
Research and Education (NSF EF-0424599). RBJ
was supported by the NSF (DEB #0717191) and by the
DOE’s National Institute for Climate Change Research.